ARM joins group driving IoT specs

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – ARM is lending its growing influence to an industry group developing Internet of Things (IoT) standards.

ARM CEO Warren East used a keynote address during ARM TechCon keynote here on Thursday (Nov. 1) to announce that the chip IP vendor is joining the Weightless Special Interest Group. The group was formed by Neul Ltd., a startup company as based in Cambridge, England.

Other members include Cable & Wireless Worldwide and CSR. The four companies have agreed on an an approach for creating a new IoT standards and encouraging broad adoption. The new spec is expected to be ready in early 2013.

The group is aiming to deliver royalty-free, open standards to enable machine-to-machine (M2M) communications at the heart of the IoT. Communications among a basestation and thousands of machines is expected to use unoccupied TV transmission channels, so called white space radio. The platform could be used for multiple applications relying on M2M communications.

The reuse of white space spectrum offers a different balance between energy consumption and range compared to existing wireless standards. Cellular provides long range but consumes considerable energy and is optimized for low latency. Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth offer longer battery life at progressively shorter ranges.

The Weightless spec will be optimized to fill this "connectivity gap," said East, adding that it could boost the range of M2M systems by several miles while providing ten-year battery life in a sub-$2 radio.

ARM TechCon was organized by UBM Electronics, the publisher of EE Times.